ARRL January VHF Contest - 2023
Call: N3YY
Operator(s): N3YY
Station: N3YY
Class: SO 3Band-All Modes LP
QTH: FN22iC
Operating Time (hrs): 30
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 253
2: 123
222:
432: 22
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 398 147 Total Score = 64,260
Club: Murgas ARC
Comments:
Arrived up the mountain on Thursday evening. Turned on the inverter, got the
woodstove going and the cabin warmed up.
Then friday morning the ice coating started, it almost ended my weekend but by
midday friday, rain then warming
melted off the ice and SWR's returned to normal. Used that time to set up my
secondary
antennas in the front yard ...a simple 12 ft pole bunjee'd to a stepladder jerry
rigged ! Then I worked on
getting my spare FT 991A/laptop connected and networked into main N3FJP . Ugghhh
now networking is
not working !!! Finally i got both networked, everything's working then the ice
starts falling again !
2100 ft elevation in upstate NY is a double edge sword. Went to bed friday
night figuring my
weekend was probably finished but Saturday morning i wake up and the ice melted
off...
and the ice held off til Sunday night around midnight ! Contest started off very
well with lots of
local/regional activity mostly within 300 miles but VERY VERY strong inside 300
miles ... i was glad to
get the occasional EM and EN grids when they popped up . Propagation from me
(FN22) to the Carolina's, GA, Fla and EM grids
was spotty, not as good as usual and i didn't work alot of the usual calls i
often work from that region.
Did get to work several local/regional people on 2m FM and 440 FM which was nice
!
Had a couple nice, extended Qso's with a few new calls to me ... and a few
regulars as well.
A little ragchew during the contest was an enjoyable break.
I pushed hard into Sat night, planned to hit the hay around midnight but started
making Q's again
but around 230am EST it ended. I slept from 3am until 5am est Sunday morning,
got up,
had a quick, cool, bag shower ...got some coffee and started on 6/2 meteor
scatter around 6am .
Had a blast making some new grids via MSK until that slowed ...then FT8 slowed
so i threw on the head phones, got my foot
on the switch and started calling CQ . Made alot of one after the other
local/regional Q's on voice while it
lasted. Love it when i can get any kind of a run going on SSB voice, about 20%
of
my Q's were on phone . Wish more people were on phone as you can really rack up
points fast.
>From midday Sunday on, i jockeyed between bands making lots more regional Q's
and also running out in the rain
to armstrong the secondary antennas between eastward (toward NYC, NJ) and then
straight
down the east coast towards Phila, Wash/DC and VA ...Just so many calls this
weekend within 300 miles i haven't
seen before was nice ! Then sometime around 5pm Sun, the lack of sleep started
hitting me
so i made another coffee, threw my alum foil/prepackaged leftovers meal on the
woodstove, ate dinner around 6pm with
B.i.C trying to keep making Q's ...7pm ...8pm...now i'm getting really tired but
i'm staying in military mode !
FT8, just after 8pm all heck breaks loose. I start seeing all kinds of SA and
even snagged a few for some new grids .
Then i'm copying a guy in the southwest around 1000 mi at +18db , i make the Q
and he sends me (i think) around +20 !!!
Had a few more Q just like that, approx 1000mi into the South/Southwest,
abnormally strong copy and receive .
This SA and SW opening continued until around 930-10pm . The excitement provided
a much needed second wind
for the final push and a bunch of new grids ! Spent the last hour looking
everywhere
for any more crumbs and Q's ...throwing out CQ's on 2 and 6 phone, listened on
432.174 where i randomly found
and made a few Q's in the last hour. The end came and i treated myself to one
dark stout beverage and pretzels
....which went down so good . Pics of my QTH and setup are both on my QRZ page
and the FB group Eastern States VHF & up Chat .
Two FT 991A , two networked laptops, mobile hotspot in my phone for internet.
Main Yagi's at 60 ft: M2 6m5hxp, M2 432-9wl, 15el K1FO on 2m .
Secondary Yagi's at 12 ft in front yard my 1990's M2 2m-12 , Sirio 3el 6m
yagi(nice wide pattern)
To the couple rovers i worked, Thank you ! I myself started doing weak signal as
a rover in the mid 90's with K3YTL (Yellow Traffic Light) 4 grids 6m-10Ghz . I'd
like to coordinate better with the rovers and work more of you !
Thank you everyone for all the fun and the Q's ! 73 ...Steve
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